ICYMI: University of California Board of Regents announce 2026 UC Regents Innovation Awards recipients

At a ceremony on Wednesday, September 16, 2026, the University of California Board of Regents held its inaugural Innovation Awards. The awards honored 23 exceptional UC innovators across five categories, chosen from a group of nominees that represented all 10 UC campuses and three affiliated national laboratories.

The inaugural winners are curing diseases, tackling climate change, launching new industries, and connecting people across the globe. Their work contributes to making UC the No. 1 public university for academic research with the most influential scientists and a world record for Nobel Prizes. The winners of the 2026 UC Regents Innovation Awards are:

Gamechanger Award (for the most impactful product introduced to market):

• Michael Leon, UC Irvine: Developed MemoryAir, a medical device that delivers natural scents to older adults during sleep. His olfactory-enrichment method improves deep sleep and boosts memory outcomes, offering an accessible, noninvasive therapy for patients living with dementia.

• Kevan Shokat, UC San Francisco: Discovered a hidden binding pocket on the KRAS protein. This breakthrough led to the first FDA-approved drugs to inhibit out-of-control cell growth caused by mutated forms of the KRAS gene, reshaping how scientists develop therapies for some of the world's deadliest cancers.
• Fyodor Urnov, UC Berkeley: Leads the development of on-demand gene-editing treatments for children born with rare genetic disorders. His team established a framework that cuts the development cost of personalized CRISPR cures by 90%, opening the door to new, scalable and accessible treatments for families around the world.

Disruptive Research Award (for research with the best potential to be developed into new or improved technologies, products, or services that will improve lives):

• Chang Liu, UC Irvine: Invented OrthoRep, an artificial DNA replication system that accelerates targeted protein evolution. His system compresses biological evolutionary timelines from years to days, allowing researchers to rapidly engineer new therapeutic proteins and cancer-fighting antibodies.

• Susan Lynch, UC San Francisco: Established a new paradigm for preventing food allergies, asthma and other conditions caused by immune system malfunctions. In clinical trials of a living microbial therapy that boosts healthy gut microbes in infants, atopic dermatitis decreased by 64% and food allergies by 77% in high-risk infants.

• Aydogan Ozcan, UCLA: Leading researcher in AI-powered computational imaging, sensing and optical computing. His work harnesses the physics of light to perform AI computations, paving the way for more sustainable, energy-efficient AI and expanding access to next-generation intelligence beyond traditional data centers.

Best Startup Award (for the new company using UC research to address societal needs):

• Joseph DeRisi, UC San Francisco: Founded Delve Bio to pioneer a metagenomic test that diagnoses complex central nervous system infections when conventional testing fails. Its flagship service, Delve Detect, reduces unnecessary procedures, shortens hospital stays and gives hospitals nationwide access to advanced infectious disease diagnostics and expert neurological consultation.

• Jean-Pierre Hubschman, UCLA: Founded Horizon Surgical Systems to create an AI-assisted robotic platform that automates complex eye surgeries. His technology standardizes surgical precision, expands access to sight-restoring procedures, and has created 60 high-skill jobs in Southern California.

• Erika La Plante, UC Davis: Co-founded Equatic, a company behind an industrial process that uses seawater to capture atmospheric carbon while producing clean hydrogen fuel. The technology is a scalable system for permanent ocean carbon removal and green energy production.

Community Changemaker Award (for improving social and economic prosperity by supporting UC's innovative enterprise):

• Bud Colligan established the Colligan Clinical Diagnostic Laboratory at UC Santa Cruz to provide regional COVID-19 testing and support pediatric disease research. Through early investments in Digital NEST and Central Coast Angels, he channels capital into California's Central Coast to create technology jobs for local youth.

• Josh Green established UCLA Ventures as an entrepreneurial community. Leveraging a unique equity-pledge model, UCLA Ventures connects early-stage founders with investments and resources. His mentorship network accelerates regional startups and channels financial resources back into university research.

• Elizabeth Redman Cleveland, the chief strategist for sustainable growth for the City of Berkeley, Calif., expanded the city's innovation sector to nearly 370 technology companies. Through her Berkeley Ventures Berkeley Values initiative, she builds pathways for youth to access STEM careers and connects civic-tech growth with community prosperity.

Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award (for innovations that have led to longterm positive impacts on the lives of others and inspiring UC inventors and entrepreneurs):

• John Bowers, UC Santa Barbara: Integrated laser technology directly onto silicon chips, multiplying fiber-optic data transmission rates by a factor of one thousand. He founded seven technology startups, leads the Institute for Energy Efficiency and co-founded the nonprofit Unite to Light to distribute solar power to off-grid communities.
• Jean-Cleaude Falmagne, UC Irvine: Pioneered modern cognitive theory that explains how students achieve mastery. That work led him to found ALEKS, an online learning platform used by over 50 million students that quickly assesses what students already know and what they are ready to learn in math, chemistry, statistics and more.
• Richard Green, UC Santa Cruz: His innovations in DNA sequencing have led to breakthrough discoveries about human evolution - including a draft sequence of the Neanderthal genome - and forensic applications that have helped solve cold cases around the country through his company, Astrea Forensics. Green also founded two startups, Dovetail Genomics and Claret Biosciences, at the UC Santa Cruz branch of the California Institute of Quantitative Biosciences (QB3), which he now leads.
• Stephen Hauser, UC San Francisco: His discovery of the central role of B cells in multiple sclerosis has been the basis for three revolutionary drugs to treat the disease: rituximab (Rituxan), ocrelizumab (Ocrevus) and ofatumumab (Kesimpta). Hauser is also a senior medical advisor for Neurona Therapeutics, a UC San Francisco-founded biotech company developing neural cell therapies for neurological diseases.
• Michael Jung, UCLA: His research led to the invention of two FDA-approved prostate cancer drugs, Xtandi and Erleada, which have extended the lives of over a million men worldwide. Licensing revenues from his discoveries continue to fund student scholarships and scientific research across the university.
• Jay Keasling, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: By engineering microorganisms to produce biofuels and chemicals, Jay Keasling not only helped launch the field of synthetic biology but also created artemisinin, a powerful antimalarial drug. He has founded or co-founded 12 startups that have raised more than $2.37 billion in funding and holds a total of 75 issued patents.
• Mikeal Roose, UC Riverside: Used citrus genetics to develop several new mandarin varieties, including the virtually seedless Tango, an easy-to-peel fruit often found under the name Wonderful Halos, Cuties or Delites that has put the mandarin on pace to be the best-selling U.S. citrus. His research also targets huanglongbing (citrus greening), a major threat to the citrus industry worldwide.
• Justin Siegel, UC Davis: His research focuses on the design and discovery of enzymes for a wide range of applications, including therapeutics development and fuel or chemical production. He is co-inventor on more than 100 global patents and a founding member of six companies, including PvP Biologics, whose gluten-digesting enzyme technology was acquired by pharmaceutical giant Takeda, and Peak B, which developed natural blue food coloring for the food industry.
• Jennifer Smith, UC San Diego: Her research develops cutting-edge techniques for studying and restoring marine ecosystems, such as 3-D imaging of coral reefs. She co-founded the California Seaweed Company, a culinary seaweed startup, and is developing commercial-scale seaweed aquaculture, including cultivation of a red seaweed with CH4 Global that can reduce methane emissions from cattle. 

• Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli, UC Berkeley: Pioneered tools that launched the electronic design automation industry. By co-founding Cadence and Synopsys and sharing his software models globally, he enabled the automated chip design that powers modern computing, communication, transportation, consumer and health care devices.

• Christopher Spadaccini, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory: Developed more than 50 patented technologies to create new materials conventional manufacturing cannot achieve, such as materials that are both lightweight and exceptionally strong. He has founded several LLNL fabrication laboratories and led an 18-month collaboration with Autodesk to advance next-gen 3-D printing on objects like protective helmets.

To learn more about each of these deserving winners and the work that led to their being honored by the UC Board of Regents, please visit this page.

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